Being a newborn and pet photographer, babies and pets are obviously pretty important to me. They're my livelihood! Helping babies and pets that are in need is also incredibly important to me. If you follow this blog, you probably know my friends and I do a fundraiser walk every year to raise money for the rescue dogs and cats at the Kent Animal Shelter. We decided this year we’re going to double the fun and the impact by walking in the March for Babies fundraiser on April 28th at Jones Beach in Wantagh, NY.

Donations from the walk will go to fund research for premature births and help families who have babies in the NICU. My friend Dina’s son Dominic was in the NICU for 6 weeks (read about his story here) and she said that the March of Dimes gave her and her husband so much support while they were dealing with the nightmare of having a baby sick in the NICU.

Stella’s mom Veronica wanted some photos of her, but was worried that Stella wouldn’t cooperate for her session, since she’s very shy. I told her not to worry, we were going to get great shots. For cat sessions, I always offer the option to go to the client’s home, because cats can get very nervous when traveling to a new place and that doesn’t make for good photos! When I got to her house, I had Stella’s mom bring her in to observe me a little bit.

I set up a few things, then I just sat on the floor for a little while, and let Stella get used to me. I threw her a couple of treats now and then, and once she was comfortable enough to come up to me, I knew it was time to test out my lights. The flash of my lights can bother some animals or make them blink too much, but only rarely. Stella didn’t seem bothered by them, so I was able to start shooting! My lights are very portable so I was able to twist them around to follow Stella’s movements. Treats, jingly toys and a ribbon on a stick were all very helpful in getting Stella to look my way so I could photograph her beautiful eyes! Here are some of my favorite photos from her session!

When I received a voicemail from dad-to-be Don inquiring about maternity photos, I was a little surprised. I almost never get to speak to dads until I meet them at the session. Unsurprisingly, moms are usually the ones who call to book me for these type of sessions (actually all types of sessions haha). I could tell Don was really excited to be a dad and he wanted to take care of everything for mom-to-be Talesia, so she could focus on looking spectacular for the photos and growing their beautiful baby girl.

I met Talesia when they arrived at the studio for their session. She was getting very close to the big day, so much so that she even had a Braxton Hicks contraction during the shoot! I was thinking for a minute there that the session was going to take an unexpected turn! But it came and went and even after that, she was eager to do lots of poses and she did them all perfectly. Talesia is wearing one of the dresses I keep in my client closet for expecting moms to choose from during their maternity session. It looked gorgeous on her!